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Sprinkling Writing With Humor
What Writers Do — Writers sometimes make their readers laugh out loud. Adding humor is
one way to keep readers reading.
Informative/
Explanatory
What This Writer Does — In her personal narrative about “a time you helped someone,”
Aine makes readers to laugh out loud and beg, “Again!”
Activity for your class:
1. Read the piece aloud or choose a student volunteer who will read with lots
of animation.
2. After passing out copies, have students reread it, highlighting their three
favorite lines.
3. Compare favorites and talk about why students chose the lines they did.
4. Notice how many readers chose lines because they were funny.
Challenge for students:
Write a composition about a memory and see if you can sprinkle some humor
into it. See if you can make your readers laugh. You can use the text structure
below if you wish.
Memory Reflection
Where you
were
What happened
first
What happened
next
90
What happened
last
What you
thought
Part II. Informative/Explanatory
Pa r t
II
A Note About Informative/
Explanatory Writing
While argument is based on opinion or belief, informative/explanatory
writing is more about explaining a concept, clarifying a process, or
describing how something is made or how it works. Most analysis falls
into this category, because a writer looks at something by examining its
parts. For this reason, we include response to literature in this section.
In the real world, informative writing happens because someone is asking
for information. Someone needs to know something or to understand
something better. The writer addresses the topic to clear up some kind of
confusion.
In academic writing, that situation is simulated but still imaginable.
All compelling writing contains clearly written information and
explanations. Arguments cannot be convincing without information;
narratives won’t sustain a reader without clear explanations.
But in testing situations, the categories are so artificially separated that
we recognize the need to strengthen the components of these kinds of
writing and attempt to separate them for you. You may notice, naturally,
some genre overlap in the student pieces and wonder why we didn’t place
a piece in a different section of the book. Know that that’s because many
of these student pieces were not written under rigid testing situations
to fit into a testing genre but as part of a varied and rich year’s worth of
teaching in a classroom.
We marvel at classrooms that produce beautiful analysis. One gorgeous
example is the work of Annie Adams, a high school student who analyzed
Of Mice and Men with a painting, a poem, and an explanation of her
thinking about the literary work. Her pieces end this section. They will
take your breath away.
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Writing a Graphic Book Review
What Writers Do — When readers like a book, they share information about it with other
readers, sometimes by writing a book review.
What This Writer Does — In her graphic book review, Batya offers intriguing glimpses
into Rick Riordan’s Mission Road. The information she provides will help other readers decide
whether they’d like to read it, too.
Activity for your class:
1. Ask your students to look at the elements included on the page and then
read each section.
2. Invite them to go on a treasure hunt for the following sections. Circle and
label each one:
• quotations from the book and Batya’s reactions to them
• a place where the book’s genre is mentioned
• information about the setting, characters, and plot
• information about the publication of the book
• her star-rating
• information about the reviewer
Challenge for students:
Create a similar review of a book you have read, either in graphic form, with
illustrations, like Batya’s, or in another form. Use the text structure below to be
sure you provide a variety of relevant information in your review.
Book Review
Information
about
publication
Favorite lines,
with
commentary
116
Information about
characters,
setting, plot
Recommendation
Part II. Informative/Explanatory
Batya Katz - Grade 8
Copyright © 2013 by Batya Katz. From Fun-Size Academic Writing for Serious Learning by Bernabei and Reimer, www.corwin.com/funsize
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Analyzing the Rhetorical Effects of
Poetic Devices
What Writers Do — Writers may closely analyze the specific poetic devices a poet employs
and the effect created by those authorial choices.
What This Writer Does — In this thoughtful analysis, Alison explores Edgar Allan Poe’s
word choices, mood, and meaning in the poem “Annabel Lee.”
Activity for your class:
1. Have students read Alison’s analysis BEFORE reading the poem “Annabel
Lee.”
2. As a class, list some things you learn about the poem from Alison’s essay
(Example: the title character is dead).
3. Find examples to highlight the following two things:
•green: discussions of poetic devices (Example: repetition of the title,
imagery)
•yellow: the effect each device has on the reader (e.g., repetition of the
name and use of the final –ee sound create an echo effect; the imagery
creates “creepiness”)
Challenge for students:
Choose a poem you like or lyrics to a song. Try doing what Alison did, using
the main points in the structure below to find and analyze poetic devices.
Point-by-Point Text Analysis
What I notice
about the title
What I notice
about word
choices
What I notice
about the
speaker’s
attitudes
128
What I notice
that changes
What I think it
all means
Part II. Informative/Explanatory
Alison Reimer - Grade 9
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1
“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
will never get over her. He is just waiting to die, so
TITLE—The title introduces us to the sound of the
he can be with her. “And so, all the night-tide, I lay
name, Annabel Lee, which is important for Poe. He
down by the side/ of my darling, my darling, my
repeats her name seven times, and more than half
life and my bride.” The speaker seems increasingly
the lines in this poem end with that ee sound. It’s
obsessed and unbalanced as the poem goes on,
almost like the name is shouted out in the title, and
and this is what it all leads to. He is half-alive and
then echoes through the rest of the poem. She is
half-dead, sleeping in a tomb by the ocean.
the center of this poem, but we never learn much
about her except that she was young, the narrator’s
wife, and her name was Annabel Lee. In a way, the
sound of her name becomes her, and takes her
place. It’s a poem about a girl, but also about the
memory of her. She hasn’t left much behind for
him but the sound of a name he keeps repeating.
The title, always the first thing we read, is a great
place for Poe to tip us off to this theme.
SHIFTS—The voice, attitude and mood shift from
happy to sad and angry in about the second
stanza when Poe starts to talk about the death of
Annabel Lee and the angels taking her away. In
lines 34-37 there is a major shift; the poem goes
from past tense to present tense. “For the moon
never beams, without bringing me dreams/ of the
beautiful Annabel Lee;/ and the stars never rise,
but I feel the bright eyes/ of the beautiful Annabel
CONNOTATION and DICTION—In the 5th and 6th
Lee.” He was telling a story about something that
stanzas Poe uses romantic metaphors that describe
happened long ago, but now he’s letting us know
his love for her even after her death and how he
what’s happening right now. The increasing shifts
thinks of her at almost every moment of the day. In
the last couplet of the poem, Poe starts with a poetic
description of his wife’s state; “In her sepulchre
and imagery in the lines create a creepiness in the
poem.
there by the sea,” but then he translates his poetic
THEME—The poem means that the author is deeply
diction into plain terms with “In her tomb by the
depressed without his true love. The message in the
sea.” Repetition is used here not only to augment
poem is that true love exists but may not always
her state of being but also for Poe to translate the
be happy. It relates to life because it shows that
poetic diction of the first line to simpler terms in
everything doesn’t go perfect. It shows that life can
the second line. When doing this Poe clarifies it
be hard sometimes but also that it can be beautiful
for the reader because with the diction and poetic
and fun. Readers will be able to relate to this if they
and mysterious sense that pretty much just stems
have lost a love one. It is understandable that the
from the word sepulchre makes the idea seem more
author is sad.
far off and just an unreal thought. This is because
sepulchre is more of an unknown word which has a
mysterious connotation to it. However in the second
line sepulchre is broken down to tomb which has a
very real and concrete connotation to all of us.
ATTITUDE—It shows love and death. You learn that
the narrator is desperately in love and cannot live
without her. He blames God, or the angels for being
jealous. He says that he will always love her and he
Copyright © 2013 by Alison Reimer. From Fun-Size Academic Writing for Serious Learning by Bernabei and Reimer, www.corwin.com/funsize
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65
Using Quotations to Support a
Thesis in a Literary Essay
What Writers Do — When writers discuss a literary work, they track their thinking, using
direct quotations to highlight specific parts of the book or work that influenced that thinking.
What This Writer Does — Selena discusses one of the characters in Animal Farm by
George Orwell, exploring her belief that this character is an archetype. As she does this,
she presents quotations from the book and explains what each quotation reveals about the
character.
Activity for your class:
1. Pass out copies and read the piece.
2. Invite students to use highlighters to find the following:
• blue—the quotations from the book
• yellow—Selena’s analysis of each quotation (what it shows)
3. Look at the pattern, share, and reflect: Does Selena make her thinking
clear? Can you think of other ways to explain the material in the quotes?
Challenge for students:
Think of an interesting character from something you’ve read. If you were to
describe that character with one word (or short phrase), what would it be?
Just as Selena did, explain what the character did or said in the story, using
quotations and explanations to reveal what those quotations show us. Colorcode it the same way you did Selena’s. What do you see?
Describing a Character
This
character is
(description)
One way we
know (with
quotes and
explanations)
144
Another way
we know (with
quotes and
explanations)
These all
add up to
show us this
Part II. Informative/Explanatory
Selena Portillo - Grade 11
65
1
Squealer as the Trickster Archetype in Animal Farm
In Animal Farm by George Orwell, Squealer is a typical trickster archetype. In the novel a farm is
taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. The animals set out to form a utopia of progress, justice,
and equality. Through Squealer’s archetype of the trickster, Orwell shows that manipulation can be used
for power and control.
Squealer fits every attribute of a trickster. Squealer was such a brilliant talker that the others
declared that “he could turn black into white.” This example shows that Squealer can make you believe
what he wants you to believe. He then goes on and tells the other animals that, “It is for your sake that we
drink that milk and eat those apples.” This shows that he makes the others believe that he cares for them.
Both of these examples prove that Squealer is a trickster. He feels so smart that he can control what the
others think and do.
Squealer’s character fits the theme that manipulation can be used for power and control. When
talking to the other animals, Squealer states that Comrade Napoleon, “would be only too happy to let
you make your own decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions,
comrades, and then where should we be?” This example shows that Squealer manipulates the others
into thinking that he knows best. He then goes on and states “Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones
back?” This shows that he appeals to the animals gut instincts and prejudices. He justifies decisions
by telling them that the pigs want to break the way of Jones. Both examples prove that Squealer
manipulates the other animals into believing that they are making the decisions when it’s truly
the pigs.
Squealer is so selfish and power-hungry that he is willing to bend reality to suit his interests. He gets
what he wants through coaxing and treachery. Squealer does this through exploitation which can be used
to bully and demean others, a classic characteristic of the trickster archetype.
Copyright © 2013 by Selena Portillo. From Fun-Size Academic Writing for Serious Learning by Bernabei and Reimer, www.corwin.com/funsize
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